Cinema in 1960s

In the past few years I’ve re-watched some films that were released in the 70s or late 60s, that I thought very good at the time. Only to find them terribly dated and nothing like as good as I remembered. I don’t remember the odd F word but TBH it wouldn’t have startled me even then.

One exception to the ‘don’t bother’ rule, is The Tamarind Seed (early 70s IIRC) with Omar Sharif as the Russian trying to recruit Julie Andrews (in her first ‘non-sweet’ role) as a spy - or is he?
I have it on DVD and still watch it now and then.

Particularly given recent events (Putin’s Russia) the KGB content is as chilling as it ever was - there are some heart stopping moments, and there are a couple of twists I certainly never saw coming the first time.

From what I can remember films in the 60s didn't have foul language in them. They were of much better calibre than these days.

😂

petra

Granmarderby10

“love a duck!” usually uttered with exasperation by my Mum or others of her age group in the 1960s but I was completely unaware of any connection the term had with the f word or even what that word meant -just that it was a swear word,

I can certainly imagine this phrase being spoken in kitchen sink dramas such as Saturday Night Sunday Morning for instance.

It may interest you to know that the words, sod, Christ and bugger were removed from Saturday night because it was deemed offensive.

What about Good King Wenceslas?

How do you sing that without the word sod?
"Heat was in the very turf" doesn't rhyme with "trod"

petra

Allira

Autocorrect. Who is GIL? Why is he blue?

GI Blues.

Keep um coming 😂

I do know GIL and he's lovely 😁

Allira

Autocorrect. Who is GIL? Why is he blue?

GI Blues.

Keep um coming 😂

Granmarderby10

“love a duck!” usually uttered with exasperation by my Mum or others of her age group in the 1960s but I was completely unaware of any connection the term had with the f word or even what that word meant -just that it was a swear word,

I can certainly imagine this phrase being spoken in kitchen sink dramas such as Saturday Night Sunday Morning for instance.

It may interest you to know that the words, sod, Christ and bugger were removed from Saturday night because it was deemed offensive.

NanKate

From my memory the expression was *Love a duck*

My parents used this expression and they never swore or drank. They said it when they were surprised.

Firstly there was film censorship until the late 60s so not much got through, followed later by Mary Whitehouse trying to close the stable door after the horse has bolted.

Autocorrect. Who is GIL? Why is he blue?

GI Blues.

NanKate

From my memory the expression was *Love a duck*

Yes.

I don't remember Elvis swearing in Blue Hawaii or GIL Blues. 😁

Or Hayley Mills using the 'F' word either. 😯

So I think somebody was pulling OP’s leg 🤪🤪

The very strict censorship at that time would have ruled it out.

I can certainly imagine this phrase being spoken in kitchen sink dramas such as Saturday Night Sunday Morning for instance
Never- their language was more serious.

“Love a duck” was the sort of thing a “cheerful cockney chappie “ might utter -or what an American film maker thought they might - I’m thinking Dick van Dyke in “Mary Poppins” !

No of course it wasn’t. Fantasy I’m afraid.

“love a duck!” usually uttered with exasperation by my Mum or others of her age group in the 1960s but I was completely unaware of any connection the term had with the f word or even what that word meant -just that it was a swear word,

I can certainly imagine this phrase being spoken in kitchen sink dramas such as Saturday Night Sunday Morning for instance.

Love a duck! Was used a lot in the past, as in Cor! Love a duck!
Haven’t heard the other Anglo Saxon version😁 mind you I was only born in the 1960’s.

It does exist as a phrase and appears in the OED but all the source cited are from American writers including Henry Miller. Well he would, wouldn't he?

NanKate

From my memory the expression was *Love a duck*

Exactly! ❤️🦆

My mistake. I added an extra British into that paragraph.

Apparently, Robert Altmann's MASH was the first big American release to use the f word.

I honestly don't think I have ever heard the phrase used in a film and I watch a lot of bad 1960s films on Talking Pictures TV!

From my memory the expression was Love a duck

Silverbrooks

The chronology of swearing in films is well documented.

The f word began to break into British cinema when it was uttered once in the film Vapor (1963) and in two Andy Warhol films – Poor Little Rich Girl (1965) and My Hustler (1965), and later in each of two 1967 British releases, Ulysses and I'll Never Forget What's'isname. It was used several times in the 1969 British film Bronco Bullfrog.

It certainly wasn't commonplace.

I doubt that the Andy Warhol films count as “British” cinema -
Vapors is similarly an American film, a 1965 short film directed by Andy Milligan and written by Hope Stansbury. The film portrays the lives and conflicts of a group of gay men set during one evening in a New York bath house for men.
Vapors
Directed by
Andy Milligan
Written by
Hope Stansbury
Produced by
Andy Milligan
Cinematography
Andy Milligan
Edited by
Andy Milligan
Running time
32 minutes
Country
United States

I have yet to find out about the others.
TBH I have no recollection of films in the 1960’s using this phrase and find it hard to imagine it being enunciated by the actors or film stars of the day

I was still a child in the 60s so wouldn't have seen the kind of films where swearing was acceptable.

RosieandherMaw

What films were you watching n the 60’s?

I don’t believe you.

Same here. I was a huge cinema fan in the 60s.
Word had it that it was in the first M..A…S…H Episode.
I’m old enough to remember when Kenneth Tynan uttered the forbidden F word.

The chronology of swearing in films is well documented.

The f word began to break into British cinema when it was uttered once in the film Vapor (1963) and in two Andy Warhol films – Poor Little Rich Girl (1965) and My Hustler (1965), and later in each of two 1967 British releases, Ulysses and I'll Never Forget What's'isname. It was used several times in the 1969 British film Bronco Bullfrog.

It certainly wasn't commonplace.